Friday, November 21, 2014

Magic

This will surprise absolutely nobody who knows me well and has therefore heard me pine wistfully for a press and a bindery to call my own.

I'm enjoying it. The teacher is excellent, the fee is reasonable, and my first efforts are imperfect but promising. Last time we did Japanese stab bindings:

The studio itself has taken getting used to.

I'm usually surrounded by fiber arts folks. Here's the thing about fiber arts folks: they're humble. Doesn't matter who they are or what they've done, you'll have to look hard to find a knitter who will throw attitude at you because she's got four decades of professional experience and has written a string of classic books.

This is probably due at least in part to the greater world's general sniffing disdain for textile arts, especially knitting and crochet. These are (so they say) unserious, unimportant, practiced by the sad and the shut-in. They're wrong and stupid about that; but on the positive side it does tend to keep us grounded.

Snobs there are, yes, and those whose folies de grandeur make for fun industry gossip. But they're a distinct minority.

So it was a bit of a cold bath to be reminded when I walked into the print studio for the first time what a room full of extreme self-importance feels like. Absolutely everyone in sight (except me) was a Serious Artist to Be Taken Seriously.

I heard more theorizing, posturing, and pronouncing in five minutes than in all the previous year. I heard an early-twentysomething who was silkscreening a cartoon owl onto a t-shirt refer un-ironically to "my earlier body of work."

I don't do very well in situations like this. I get scared and I shrink. I mumble. I took my bone folder and awl and sat in a corner and tried to disappear.

Last week I went into the room where the paper guillotine* lives, and just as I was getting ready to chop the head of my little perfect-bound book, one of the Serious Artists looked up from her bench–she was scrutinizing a very gorgeous letterpress poster–and asked me about my scarf. This scarf, which was made of leftovers from Longer on the Inside:

"I love those colors," she said. "Where did you get it?"

"I made it," I said.

She was taken aback.

"You mean you...what? You sewed it or something?"

"No, I made it. I wove it."

"You wove it? You mean you made the actual fabric?"

"Yes. On a loom."

"You made fabric?"

"Yes."

"Oh my god," she said. "That's incredible. You actually made fabric? From scratch? Can I touch it? Would it be okay if I touched it?"

I let her touch it.

"I just can't believe you made fabric," she said. "That's like...magic."

Good to hear. Good to be reminded that what we do can startle even Very Serious Artists.

We're magic.

*Ohhhhh, the paper guillotine. It's so beautiful. Cast iron, almost five feet high, easily a century old. Can slice tiny slivers off the edge of stack of telephone books. Enormous, graceful curving lever to lower the blade. The paper guillotine. Mmmmmmm.

Hopefully this will make you smile, in a bookbinding, stitching sort of way.....http://westdeanconservation.com/2014/10/26/intro-to-binding-japanese-stab-binding-tutorial-flexible-cover-with-three-hole-stitching

I have a friend who is a bookbinder by trade, and I think he feels the same as you do about his guillotine. And he is respectfully about the magic his wife makes with string. I completely grok your post because of him.

Making fabric, with loops made with sticks of any description, is a little miracle. It's lovely when Serious Artists recognise it. And some of the very best Serious Artists working now (Grayson Perry, say), are breaking down that stupid wall between Art and craft; more power to them.

Making fabric, with loops made with sticks of any description, is a little miracle. It's lovely when Serious Artists recognise it. And some of the very best Serious Artists working now (Grayson Perry, say), are breaking down that stupid wall between Art and craft; more power to them.

I've taken a bookbinding class, Coptic Binding, at the John C Campbell Folk School in North Carolina. I wanted to shrink when I saw how many people came to class with handmade paper and other great items to go into their books. A big book of paper from JoAnns was all I had. And I fell in love with the cast iron paper guillotine too.

Ah, memories of art college. Word to any teens reading this who are thinking of entering the art world: Never admit that you don't have theories of worldwide importance that you simply must express in your art because you're just 17 and therefore couldn't possibly have any theories that the world needs to know...

I wonder sometimes what it is that people who disdain knitters & crocheters (& weavers) think we are knitting or crocheting in all that frivolous wasted time. Because no matter how dismissive, they always seem impressed to hear that all this stuff that we're wearing was made by our own hands. So if you're so impressed with the result, why are you so dismissive of the process? It's weird.

I have a hydraulic paper guillotine with a 27" throat. It doesn't even *notice* phone books! It is AWESOME!

I am a member of the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guildhttp://cbbag.ca/I'm not much of a bookbinder; I'm a papermaker. However, I haven't noticed a lot of pretentiousness among the membership, so I'm not sure where it's coming from in your case.

BTW, Those are beautiful stab bindings, but for a bit of extra elegance you can try doing it with embroidery floss. It has a nice sheen to it, and is cheap and readily available. And please post more pics of your bindings!

I just found your blog after reading your article in Twist Collective about Elizabeth Zimmerman.You are hilarious and I can't wait to read more! I bet it's a blast to hang out and knit with you! Love your perspective.

Thank you for this great post. And, since I can't figure out how to leave a comment on Twist, thank you for the wonderful and hilarious and true EZ entry: http://www.twistcollective.com/collection/107-articles/1939-sip-sip-knit

Funny, I just had a very similar experience. My mil took me to a class on reusing plastic at a local gallery. Most of the artists were very serious about their "plarn" art and more than willing to brag about it. One girl in particular had a "portfolio," which is to say a small photo book from the dollar store, that she showed to anyone whether they were interested or not. All while I was wearing a newly finished Evenstar Shawl with several weeks worth of beaded edging.

Magic indeed!!! Whenever I spin I feel like I'm conjuring or something. I knitted the first yarn I ever spun into a scarf, irregular and all, and I love it when someone comments on it, and I can say I spun the yarn and then I knitted it. Now that's some magic! ;-) I hope you have a very wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, Franklin.

I think you're hanging out at the wrong place! I take classes at The Chicago Mosaic School on Cuyler by the Ravenswood tracks. They are so welcoming to beginners and they have some VERY serious artists there, some of whom are currently exhibiting in Chartres: http://www.chicagomosaicschool.com/blog/

I got into knitting for the gorgeous yarns and being able to create something useful. I do mosaics for the beautiful materials we use. It's interesting, I'm really driven by color, one art uses really touch-friendly materials, the other uses materials that can cut you! I also like being able to use tools that haven't changed much in centuries.

Just to put this in perspective: my very late uncle , looking for a hobby, took up bookbinding. Having the luxury of affluence he installed all the necessary equipment in his home. He was a snob and a blowhard of the nth degree, and he had published nothing (he re-bound some first editions he had collected, possibly rendering them without value). He was also an alcoholic physician who had lost his license to practice.

Just keep on keeping on. Learn what pleases you. Life teaches you that the biggest snobs are the ones with the least to offer, and that true geniuses are willing to engage on an equal level with all of us (as one who has failed to realize that I was engaged in encounters with a number of famous people, all of whom I failed to recognize, I know this to be true!). I hope you produce many interestingly bound books, as long as you don't stop producing lovely things made of fiber!!

If you come back to St. Louis, we will take you here:http://www.firecrackerpress.com/

They are serious artists and seriously nice people. No blowhards. But lots of amazingly wondrous antique printing machines. They have a guillotine. They cut a phone book purely to amuse my son. Oh, and they have a band comprised entirely of "instruments" that are printing devices.

If you happen to be in Maine before Christmas, you might like to see Rebecca Goodale's amazing books at the Bowdoin College library (http://library.bowdoin.edu). It's called Threatened and Endangered, and is an amazing collection of her incredible handmade books. She is an amazing artist, and also a very nice person. She teaches classes too, which are lots of fun according of I friends who have taken them. I've not been so lucky yet.

I'm very behind in my blog reading, but as I got to your description of the serious "artists" and the stress you felt. My first thought was, but you are a "serious" artisan have nothing to be ashamed of. I am glad that some of the members of your class realized this.

Hello there. I've just looked in on your blog, having noticed your 'plaid' headband in today's Ravelry 'Eye Candy'. hmmm. I see you've Discovered *my* Discovery re Garter Stitch Weaving. In my case, the antique pattern booklet literally fell on my head, several years ago, when I had a pile-too-large on a tall bookcase in my craft room. This one old book, possibly a 'Monarch' publication, possibly from 1934,was absolutely intriguing. I now make all kinds of things, by this simple, old method. It's an excellent way to learn about colors [which behave differently, in textiles, as I'm sure you know] -and it's an excellent way to create unusual textures.. which was a surprising feature of this technique, for me, because when I first tried it, it seemed like it would always produce very structured 'plaids' -which are often very nice, as your pictures show, but when you start using this method as a way of using up scrap yarn, it can also produce very nice effects, using colors that are close to each other, but in different yarn weights. It's almost an 'anything goes' kind of knitting, that absolutely everyone, earliest beginner, onward, can enjoy. Very glad you found it and shared. The old booklet that fell on my head has long since gotten 'buried up', but if I find it, I'll post the picture of the beautiful cape-like jacket that first got me interested in this type of knitting. The method is a bit tedious -I can't imagine doing it over a 'big' project, but it's excellent for small things, and sewing them together is a great way to improve finishing techniques, while creating very beautiful coat and even rug-weight textiles. Best Wishes. KAWilson

One Sunday afternoon I attended a knitting group that meets in a bar in a trendy part of town. Most of the participants were 20 somethings and newby knitters. One of them asked me what was knitting. I replied "Lace socks, my own pattern." She said. "wow. Around here that makes you a rock star." Loving itJulie in San Diego

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